The present invention relates to an elevator control system for controlling movement of at least one cage up and down among a plurality of floors in an elevator path of a building and, more particularly, relates to an elevator control system for controlling the running of the cage in accordance with the situation of waiting persons in landing places or passengers in the cage obtained by means of image pickup devices so that the running efficiency can be improved and that crime prevention and monitoring can be attained.
A large number of methods for improving the running efficiency of the elevator by using image information or for improving monitoring by using image information have been proposed in patent applications. Of those methods, that disclosed in JP-A-58-69671 is as follows. That is, the degree of crowdedness in a landing, place (hereinafter called a "hall") of an observed floor is detected by using a camera and a crowdedness detector provided in the hall of the observed floor, so that in accordance with the detected degree of crowdedness, an automatic voice guidance is made in the observed floor or other floors and, at the same time, the elevator running pattern is changed.
Further, in the method disclosed in JP-A-61-192685, a camera and a detector for detecting an intruder into in a monitoring area are provided so that the camera and the monitor are actuated to operate only when an intruder exists.
The aforementioned first prior art technique has the following disadvantage. When the crowdedness detector makes a judgment that the landing place is crowded, the elevator running pattern and the voice guidance are switched to a predetermined running pattern and a predetermined voice guidance. When the judgment is not true, not only the running efficiency is lowered remarkably but unnecessary guidance is made in the floor where no person exists.
The second prior art technique has the following disadvantage. Because the detector for detecting an intruder into the monitoring area must be provided additionally and separately, not only there arises a problem in construction labor and cost but there arises another problem in that the monitor is actuated to operate wastefully even against non-intruders.